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    "chunk_id": "1911:automatic writing:0a82dcaa731c",
    "title": "AUTOMATIC WRITING",
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    "verified_text": "automatic writing, the name given by students of psychical research to writing performed without the volition of the agent. the writing may also take place without any consciousness of the words written; but some automatists are aware of the word which they are actually writing, and perhaps of two or three words on either side, though there is rarely any clear perception of the meaning of the whole. automatic writing may take place when the agent is in a state of trance, spontaneous or induced, in hystero-epilepsy or other morbid states; or in a condition not distinguishable from normal wakefulness. automatic writing has played an important part in the history of modern spiritualism. the phenomenon first appeared on a large scale in the early days (_c._ 1850-1860) of the movement in america. numerous writings are reported at that period, many of considerable length, which purported for the most part to have been produced under spirit guidance. some of these were written in \"unknown tongues.\" of those which were published the most notable are andrew j. davis's _great harmonia_, charles linton's _the healing of the nations_, and j. murray spear's _messages from the spirit life_. in england also the early spiritualist newspapers were filled with \"inspirational\" writing,--_pages of ike paraclete_, &c. the most notable series of english automatic writings are the _spirit teachings_ of the rev. w. stainton moses. the phenomenon, of course, lends itself to deception, but there seems no reason to doubt that in the great majority of the cases recorded the writing was in reality produced without deliberate volition. in the earlier years of the spiritualist movement, a \"planchette,\" a little heart-shaped board running on wheels, was employed to facilitate the process of writing. of late years, whilst the theory of external inspiration as the cause of the phenomenon has been generally discredited, automatic writing has been largely employed as a method of experimentally investigating subconscious mental processes. knowledge which had lapsed from the primary consciousness is frequently revealed by this means; _e.g._ forgotten fragments of poetry or foreign languages are occasionally given. an experimental parallel to this reproduction of forgotten knowledge was devised by edmund gurney. he showed that information communicated to a subject in the hypnotic trance could be subsequently reproduced through the handwriting, whilst the attention of the subject was fully employed in conversing or reading aloud; or an arithmetical problem which had been set during the trance could be worked out under similar conditions without the apparent consciousness of the subject. automatic writing for the most part, no doubt, brings to the surface only the debris of lapsed memories and half-formed impressions which have never reached the focus of consciousness--the stuff that dreams are made of. but there are indications in some cases of something more than this. in some spontaneous instances the writing produces anagrams, puns, nonsense verses and occasional blasphemies or obscenities; and otherwise exhibits characteristics markedly divergent from those of the normal consciousness. in the well-known case recorded by th. flournoy (_des indes a la planete mars_) the automatist produced writing in an unknown character, which purported to be the martian language. the writing generally resembles the ordinary handwriting of the agent, but there are sometimes marked differences, and the same automatist may employ two or three distinct handwritings. occasionally imitations are produced of the handwriting of other persons, living or dead. not infrequently the writing is reversed, so that it can be read only in a looking-glass (_spiegelschrift_); the ability to produce such writing is often associated with the liability to spontaneous somnambulism. the hand and arm are often insensible in the act of writing. there are some cases on record in which the automatist has seemed to guide his hand not by sight, but by some special extension of the muscular sense (carpenter, _mental physiology_, s. 128; w. james, _proceedings american s.p.r_. p. 554). automatic writing frequently exhibits indications of telepathy. the most remarkable series of automatic writings recorded in this connexion are those executed by the american medium, mrs piper, in a state of trance (_proceedings s.p.r._). these writings appear to exhibit remarkable telepathic powers, and are thought by some to indicate communication with the spirits of the dead. [v.03 p.0048] the opportunities afforded by automatic writing for communicating with subconscious strata of the personality have been made use of by pierre janet and others in cases of hystero-epilepsy, and other forms of dissociation of consciousness. a patient in an attack of hysterical convulsions, to whom oral appeals are made in vain, can sometimes be induced to answer in writing questions addressed to the hand, and thus to reveal the secret of the malady or to accept therapeutic suggestions. see edmonds and dexter, _spiritualism_ (new york, 1853); epes sargent, _planchette, the despair of science_ (boston, u.s.a., 1869); mrs de morgan, _from matter to spirit_ (london, 1863); w. stainton moses, _spirit teachings_ (london, 1883); _proceedings s.p r. passim_; th. flournoy, _des indes a la planete mars_ (geneva, 1900); f. podmore, _modern spiritualism_ (london, 1902); f. w. h. myers, _human personality_ (london, 1903); pierre janet, _l'automatisme psychologique_ (2nd ed., paris, 1894); morton prince, _the dissociation of a personality_ (london, 1906). (f. p.) automatism. in philosophical terminology this word is used in two main senses: (1) in ethics, for the view that man is not responsible for his actions, which have, therefore, no moral value; (2) in psychology, for all actions which are not the result of conation or conscious endeavour. certain actions being admittedly automatic, descartes maintained that, in regard of the lower animals, all action is purely mechanical. the same theory has since been applied to man, with this difference that, accompanying the mechanical phenomena of action, and entirely disconnected with it, are the phenomena of consciousness. thus certain physical changes in the brain result in a given action; the concomitant mental desire or volition is in no sense causally connected with, or prior to, the physical change. this theory, which has been maintained by t. huxley (_science and culture_) and shadworth hodgson (_metaphysic of experience and theory of practice_), must be distinguished from that of the psychophysical parallelism, or the \"double aspect theory\" according to which both the mental state and the physical phenomena result from a so-called \"mind stuff,\" or single substance, the material or cause of both. automatic acts are of two main kinds. where the action goes on while the attention is focused on entirely different subjects (_e.g._ in cycling), it is purely automatic. on the other hand, if the attention is fixed on the end or on any particular part of a given action, and the other component parts of the action are performed unconsciously, the automatism may be called relative. see g. f. stout, _anal. psych_, i. 258 foll.; win. james, _princ. of psych._ i. chap. 5; also the articles psychology, suggestion, &c. _sensory automatism_ is the term given by students of psychical research to a centrally initiated hallucination. such hallucinations are commonly provoked by crystal-gazing (_q.v._), but auditory hallucinations may be caused by the use of a shell (shell-hearing), and the other senses are occasionally affected. _motor automatism_, on the other hand, is a non-reflex movement of a voluntary muscle, executed in the waking state but not controlled by the ordinary waking consciousness. phenomena of this kind play a large part in primitive ceremonies of divination (_q.v._) and in our own day furnish much of the material of psychical research. at the lowest level we have vague movements of large groups of muscles, as in \"bier-divination,\" where the murderer or his residence is inferred from the actions of the bearers; of a similar character but combined with more specialized action are many kinds of witch seeking. these more specialized actions are most typically seen in the divining rod (_q.v._; see also table-turning), which indicates the presence of water and is used among the uncivilized to trace criminals. at a higher stage still we have the delicate movements necessary for automatic writing (_q.v._) or drawing. a parallel case to automatic writing is the action of the speech centres, resulting in the production of all kinds of utterances from trance speeches in the ordinary language of the speaker to mere unintelligible babblings. an interesting form of speech automatism is known as glossolalia; in the typical case of helene smith, th. flournoy has shown that these utterances may reach a higher plane and form a real language, which is, however, based on one already known to the speaker. see _man_ (1904), no. 68; _folklore_, xiii. 134; myers in _proc. s.p.r._ ix. 26, xii. 277, xv. 403; flournoy, _des indes a la planete mars_ and in _arch. de psychologie_; myers, _human personality_. (n. w. t.) automaton (from [greek: autos], self, and [greek: mao], to seize), a self-moving machine, or one in which the principle of motion is contained within the mechanism itself. according to this description, clocks, watches and all machines of a similar kind, are automata, but the word is generally applied to contrivances which simulate for a time the motions of animal life. if the human figure and actions be represented, the automaton has sometimes been called specially an _androides_. we have very early notices of the construction of automata, _e.g._ the tripods of vulcan, and the moving figures of daedalus. in 400 b.c., archytas of tarentum is said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly, and during the middle ages numerous instances of the construction of automata are recorded. regiomontanus is said to have made of iron a fly, which would flutter round the room and return to his hand, and also an eagle, which flew before the emperor maximilian when he was entering nuremberg. roger bacon is said to have forged a brazen head which spoke, and albertus magnus to have had an androides, which acted as doorkeeper, and was broken to pieces by aquinas. of these, as of some later instances, _e.g._ the figure constructed by descartes and the automata exhibited by dr camus, not much is accurately known. but in the 18th century, jacques de vaucanson, the celebrated mechanician, exhibited three admirable figures,--the flute-player, the tambourine-player, and the duck, which was capable of eating, drinking, and imitating exactly the natural voice of that fowl. the means by which these results had been produced were clearly seen, and a great impulse was given to the construction of similar figures. knauss exhibited at vienna an automaton which wrote; a father and son named droz constructed several ingenious mechanical figures which wrote and played music; frederick kaufmann and leonard maelzel made automatic trumpeters who could play several marches. the swiss have always been celebrated for their mechanical ingenuity, and they construct most of the curious toys, such as flying and singing birds, which are frequently met with in industrial exhibitions. the greatest difficulty has generally been experienced in devising any mechanism which shall successfully simulate the human voice (not to be compared with the gramophone, which reproduces mechanically a real voice). no attempt has been thoroughly successful, though many have been made. a figure exhibited by fabermann of vienna remains the best. kempelen's famous chess-player for many years astonished and puzzled europe. this figure, however, was no true automaton, although the mechanical contrivances for concealing the real performer and giving effect to his desired movements were exceedingly ingenious. j. n. maskelyne, in more recent times (1875-1880), has been prominent in exhibiting his automata, psycho (who played cards) and zoe (who drew pictures), at the egyptian hall, london, but the secret of these contrivances was well kept. (see conjuring.) automorphism (from gr. [greek: autos], self, and [greek: morphe], form), the conception and interpretation of other people's habits and ideas on the analogy of one's own. autonomy (gr. [greek: autos], self, and [greek: nomos], law), in general, freedom from external restraint, self-government. the term is usually coupled with a qualifying adjective. thus, political autonomy is self-government in its widest sense, independence of all control from without. local autonomy is a freedom of self-government within a sphere marked out by some superior authority; _e.g._ municipal corporations in england have their administrative powers marked out for them by acts of parliament, and in so far as they govern themselves within these limits exercise local autonomy. administrative or constitutional autonomy, such as exists in the british colonies, implies an extent of self-government which falls short only of complete independence. the term is used loosely even in the case of _e.g._ religious bodies, individual churches and other communities [v.03 p.0049] which enjoy a measure of self-government in certain specified respects. in philosophy, the term (with its antithesis \"heteronomy\") was applied by kant to that aspect of the rational will in which, _qua_ rational, it is a law to itself, independently alike of any external authority, of the results of experience and of the impulses of pleasure and pain. in the sphere of morals, the ultimate and only authority which the mind can recognize is the law which emerges from the pure moral consciousness. this is the only sense in which moral freedom can be understood. (see ethics; kant.) though the term \"autonomy\" in its fullest sense implies entire freedom from causal necessity, it can also be used even in determinist theories for relative independence of particular conditions, theological or conventional. autopsy (gr. [greek: autos], self, and [greek: opsis], sight, investigation), a personal examination, specifically a _post-mortem_ (\"after death\") examination of a dead body, to ascertain the cause of death, &c. the term \"necropsy\" (gr. [greek: nekros], corpse) is sometimes used in this sense. (see coroner and medical jurisprudence.)",
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